.mil Domain Information

.mil Domain Name Background

The .mil registration is exclusively meant for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary organizations. Launched in 1985, this was one of the first top level domains, and it is restricted to eligible agencies. The .mil domain is managed by the Department of Defense Network Information Center (DOD NIC). The official registry is the DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency). Currently, none of the dispute policies are available. The administrative as well as technical contact is DoD NIC Registry Services based in Ohio. The whois server is http://whois.nic.mil.

.mil Domain Name Requirements

Domain names must be descriptive of the relevant organization they represent and can only contain a maximum of 12 characters which must be unique. All DNS servers that support sub domains of the .mil domain must be in the .mil domain. Each second level domain is supported by at least two name servers which will be located in two different networks. Second level domain administrators can register using the template (through anonymous FTP) provided by the DoD NIC. The request has to be submitted to the DoD NIC hostmaster. The .mil domain registration templates will be accepted only from registered .mil users.

.mil Second Level Domain Information

Only US military services and operating agencies of the DoD can register a second level domain under .mil domain. The United States is the only country that uses the top level domain for the military. All other countries use the second level domains. The U.S military still uses the .com extension for some of its recruitment sites. The military uses .edu for its service academies. The four academies, United States military academy, coast guard academy, naval academy, and air force academy can be linked using .edu or .mil. All these academies use .com domains for their official athletic program sites.